the dogmas of a stoop of the Relief persuasion, by saying, that she thought Mr Andrew had shown a fine sensibility. "What is sensibility without judgment," cried her adversary," but a thrashing in the water, and a raising of bells-could na the fallow, without a' his parleyvoos, have said, that such and such was the case, and that the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, but his clouds, and his spectres, and his visions of Job-O! an he could but think like Job!-O! an he would but think like the patient man!-and was obliged to claut his flesh with a bit of a broken crock or porringer, we might have some hope of a repentance unto life. But Andrew Pringle, he's a gone dick ; I never had comfort or expectation of the freethinker, since I heard that he was infected with the blue and yellow calamity of the Edinburgh Review; in the which, I am credibly told, it is set forth, that women have not souls, but only a gut, and a gaw, and a gizzard, like a pigeon-dove, or a raven-crow, or any other outcast and abominated quadruped."

Here Miss Mally Glencairn interposed her effectual mediation, and said, "It is very true that Andrew deals in the diplomaticks of obscurity; but it is well known that he has a nerve for genius, and that in his own way, he kens the loan from the crown of the causeway, as well as the duck does the midden from the adle dib." To this proverb, which we never heard before, our correspondent, Mr M'Gruel subjoins an erudite note, in which he states, that middens were of great magnitude, and often of no less antiquity in the west of Scotland; in so much, that the Trongate of Glasgow owes all its magnitude and grandeur to them. It being within the recollection of persons yet living, that the aforesaid spacious and magnificent street, was at one time an open road, or highway, leading to the Trone, or market-cross, with thatched houses on each side, such as may still be seen in that pure immaculate royal borough of Rutherglen ; and that before each house stood a luxuriant midden, by the removal of which, in the progress of modern degeneracy, the stately architecture of Argyle Street was formed. But not to insist at too great length on such topics of antiquarian lore, we shall now insert the Doctor's account of the funeral, and which, patly enough, follows our digression concerning the middens and magnificence of Glasgow, as it contains an authentic anecdote of a manufacturer from that city, drinking champaign at the king's dirgie.

LETTER XIII.

The Rev. Z. Pringle, D. D. to Mr Micklewham, Schoolmaster and Session Clerk of Garnock.

DEAR SIR,-I have received your letter, and it is a great pleasure to me to hear that my people were all so much concerned at our distress in the Leith smack; but what gave me the most contentment, was the repentance of Tam Glen. I hope, poor fellow, he will prove a good husband; but I have my doubts; for the wife has really but a small share of common sense, and no married man can do well unless his wife will let. I am, however, not overly pleased with Mr Craig on the occasion, for he should have consider ed frail human nature, and accepted of poor Tam's confession of a fault, and allowed the bairn to be baptized without any more ado. I think, honest Mr Daff has acted like himself, and, I trust and hope, there will be a great gathering at the christening, and, that my mite may not be wanting, you will

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slip in a guinea note when the dish goes round, but in such a manner, that it may not be jealoused from whose hand it comes.

Since my last letter, we have been very thrang in the way of seeing the curiosities of London; but I must go on regular, and tell you all, which, I think, it is my duty to do, that you may let my people know. First, then, we have been to Windsor Castle, to see the king lying in state, and, afterwards, his interment; and sorry am I to say, it was not a sight that could satisfy any godly mind on such an occasion. We went in a coach of our own, by ourselves, and found the town of Windsor like a fair. We were then directed to the castle gate, where a terrible crowd was gathered together; and we had not been long in that crowd, till a pocket-picker, as I

TAM GLEN having, in consequence of the exhortations of Mr Micklewham, and the earnest entreaties of Mr Daff, backed by the pious animadversions of the rigidly righteous Mr Craig, confessed a fault, and acknowledged an irregular marriage with Meg Milliken-their child was admitted to church privileges. But before the day of baptism, Mr Daff, who thought Tam had given but sullen symptoms of penitence, said, to put him in better humour with his fate, "Noo, Tam, since ye hae beguiled us of the infare of the bridal, we maun mak up fort at the christening; so I'll speak to Mr Snodgrass to bid the Doctor's friens and acquaintance to the ploy, that we may get as meikle amang us as will pay for the bairn's baptismal frock."

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Mr Craig, who was present, and who never lost an opportunity of testifying, as he said, his “discountenance of the crying iniquity,” remonstrated with Mr Daff on the unchristian nature of the proposal, stigmatizing it with good emphasis, as a sinful nourishing of carnality in his day and generation." Mr Micklewham, however, interfered, and said, "it was a matter of weight and concernment, and therefore it behoves you to consult Mr Snodgrass on the fitness of the thing. For if the thing itself is not fit and proper, it cannot expect his countenance; and, on that account, before we reckon on his compliance with what Mr Daff has propounded, we should first learn whether he approves of it at all." Whereupon the two elders and the session-clerk adjourned to the manse, in which Mr Snodgrass, during the absence of the incumbent, had taken up his abode.

The heads of the previous conversation were recapitulated by Mr Micklewham, as the Rev. Mr F of Port Glasgow Sabbathly says, in the peroration of his sermons, "with as much brevity as was consistent with perspicuity;" and the matter being duly digested by Mr Snodgrass, that orthodox young man, as Mrs Glibbans denominated him, on hearing him for the first time, declared that the notion of a pay christening was a benevolent and kind thought, "For, is not the order to increase and multiply, one of the first commands in the Scriptures of truth?" said Mr Snodgrass, addressing himself to Mr Craig. Surely, then, when children are brought into the world, a great law of our nature has been fulfilled, and there is cause for rejoicing and gladness! And is it not an obligation imposed upon all Christians, to welcome the stranger, and to feed the hungry, and to clothe the naked; and what greater stranger can there be than a helpless babe? who more in need of sustenance than the infant, that knows not the way even to its mother's bosom? and whom shall we clothe, if we do not the wailing innocent, that the hand of Providence places in poverty and nakedness before us, to try, as it were, the depth of our Christian principles, and to awaken the sympathy of our humane feelings?"

Mr Craig replied, "Its a' very true and sound what Mr Snodgrass has observed, but Tam Glen's wean is neither a stranger, nor hungry, nor naked, but a sturdy brat, that has been rinning its lane for mare than sax weeks." "Ah!" said Mr Snodgrass familiarly, "I fear, Mr Craig, ye're a Malthusian in your heart." The sanctimonious elder was thunder-struck at the word. Of many a various shade and modification of sectarianism he had heard, but the Malthusian heresy was new to his ears, and awful to his conscience, and he begged Mr Snodgrass to tell him in what it chiefly consisted, protesting his innocence of that, and of every erroneous doctrine.

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Mr Snodgrass happened to regard the opinions of Malthus on population, as equally contrary to religion and nature, and not at all founded in truth. "It is evident, that the reproductive principle in the earth and vegetables, and all things and animals which constitute the means of subsistence, is much more vigorous than in man; it may be therefore affirmed, that the multiplication of the means of subsistence is an effect of the multiplication of population, for the one is augmented in quantity, by the skill and care of the other," said Mr Snodgrass, seizing with avidity this opportunity of stating what he thought on the subject, although his auditors were but the session-clerk, and two elders of a country parish. We cannot pursue the train of his argument, but we should do injustice to the philosophy of Malthus, if we suppressed the observation which Mr Daff made at the conclusion. "Gude safe's!" said the goodnatured elder, "if it's true that we breed faster than the Lord provides for us, we maun drown the poor folks' weans like kittlings." Na, na," exclaimed Mr Craig, ye're a' out neighbour, I see now the utility of church censures. "True," said Mr Micklewham, "and the ordination of the stool of repentance, the horrors of which, in the opinion of the fifteen lords at Edinburgh, palliated child-murder, is doubtless a Malthusian institution." But Mr Snodgrass put an end to the controversy, by fixing a day for the christening, and telling, he would do his best to procure a good collection, according to the benevolent suggestion of Mr Daff. And to this cause we are indebted for the next series of the Pringle correspondence,. for our worthy and intelligent correspondent, Mr M'Gruel, dined at the manse, on the day appointed, along with Mrs Glibbans and daughter, Miss Mally Glencairn, Miss Isabella Todd, &c. and other friends of the ministers' family, whom Mr Snodgrass invited from Irvine, to be present at the christening; and it was after drinking the doctor's health, in excellent three year old gooseberry, of Mrs Pringle's own making, that the following letters were produced, and read, as Miss Mally said, pro bono publico," and to satisfy all concerned in the family. Where Miss Mally learned her Latin, we know not, for at Moore's school, neither in our time, nor in that of our senior, the right honourable David Boyle, Lord Justice Clerk, were any young women taught there in that tongue; and we doubt, if even such a thing was known, in the more ancient days of the worthy Mr Dickie. But as the late Dr Oliphant of Dumbarton, a delightful man, said one day in a sermon concerning salt having lost its savour, observing, "it was a pity there was such a dreadful duty on so useful an article; that, however, is none of our business at present, let us leave it, and all the other temporalities of sin, to the king's ministers, and minister to the word." So, therefore, returning from the digression concerning Miss Mally Glencairn, and the grammar schoolmasters of Irvine, we beg attention, in the first place, to Mr Andrew Pringle's account of his late Majesty's funeral.

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LETTER XII.

Andrew Pringle, Esq. to the Rev. Charles Snodgrass.

MY DEAR FRIEND,-I have all my life been strangely susceptible of pleasing impressions from public spectacles where great crowds are assembled. This, perhaps you will say, is but another

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way of confessing, that, like the common vulgar, I am fond of sights and shows. It may be so, but it is not from the pageants that I derive my enjoyment. A multitude, in fact, is to